Flying in formation in the dark night sky is not an easy task. If it is during the day, then the pilot can use his own line of sight to adjust his flight speed and altitude, as well as the distance from other surrounding aircraft. However, at night, the vision is very blurry, and maintaining a flight formation is a technique worth studying.

First of all, the most skilled navigators, they are to fly in a three-plane formation at the forefront of the entire bomber formation. Then there were more planes, using a three-plane formation to follow behind these three planes. The rest of the aircraft extend to both sides on this central axis, forming a larger triangular flight formation. Such a huge formation is to keep their planes from being lost in the night sky, and when they fly close to the Norwegian coastline, they will divide into several formations and attack the entire Norwegian steel processing and mining enterprises at the same time.

In the darkness of the night, one B-17 bomber after another tossed in the air. In order to carry as much fuel as possible, the planes carried only a small number of aerial bombs, and the excess load was carried with fuel so that the planes could return to the Icelandic naval base.

The pilots nervously piloted their planes and maintained their flight posture in the huge formation. Because they only need to follow the pilot, most people don't have to pay attention to their own flying direction, they just need to concentrate on controlling the plane and maintaining a relative position to other aircraft.

These planes are loaded with large-caliber self-defense cannons, and the barrels make them look like dense hedgehogs. When flying in dense formations, they could effectively deal with the threat of German aircraft, which was the main reason why the US military was determined to bomb Norway, and they were full of confidence in these modified bombers.

The roar of the engines was monotonous and obvious in the silent and dark night sky, and almost no one spoke, for they knew that what awaited them must be the German artillery fire. It is a test of life and death, and it will test whether everyone will be pitied by the goddess of fate.

"Keep course!" Inside the pilot bomber, the navigator looked up and said to the senior pilot who was strictly controlling the speed of the plane, after comparing it with a compass and charts, "We will be in the skies over Norway in 35 minutes." ”

On the conning tower of a German submarine on the rough sea, the sailor on duty in a leather trench coat looked up at the starry sky, because he could not hear the sound of the plane's engine because of the waves, but he could see clearly with his telescope the warning lights on the planes that kept their distance.

"We've found our target! Immediately send this information back to the Norwegian headquarters! Quick!" the first officer on duty ordered loudly to the non-commissioned officer beside him, and the waves crashed against the conning tower, splashing a cold splash on the non-commissioned officer's face, with a hint of coldness to the bone.

"This is the U-240 submarine! We have found planes! A large number of planes! They are flying in the direction of Norway! Repeat! This is the U-240 submarine, a large number of American planes have been discovered! Sail to Norway! Sail to Norway!" The telegraph operator frantically sent coded messages, hoping to send everything he found to his headquarters as quickly as possible.

At the German Provisional Air Defense Headquarters in Norway, a naval liaison officer snatched the code of the message that had just been torn out from the telegraph operator and rushed to the side of the code translation room, where the translator translated the urgent information as quickly as possible.

Then the naval liaison officer frantically ran to Admiral Catherine and Commander of Army I Kleist: "The target has been found! The submarine U-240 has found the target!"

"Mark their location now!" Catherine quickly commanded. Not far behind him, a female sergeant with a huge putter neatly glued a red marker to the location of the U-240 submarine on the map.

"The Americans are approaching the Norwegian coast! In 20 minutes they will be at our core air defense positions. Catherine looked at the map and deduced the speed and course of the American bombers: "If it were daytime, we would have been able to take off fighters to intercept them by now." Unfortunately, it's night, and it's still a long time before daylight. ”

With his hands behind his back, General Kleist listened to Catherine, a professional air force commander, analyze the enemy's possible movements, and asked: "Are all the air force anti-aircraft artillery units deployed? Can we disperse the bomb-dropping enemy planes over the protected area?"

"Anti-aircraft fire alone is not the way to go...... What we can do now is to pray that our night fighter unit can achieve better results!" Catherine glanced at General Kleist and answered his question: "This is their first large-scale sortie, and I hope that our previous huge investment has not been in vain!"

After Catherine finished speaking, she asked General Kleist: "In terms of air defense, I have tried my best to do my best. Now my biggest question is, how did the Americans find the ground targets they bombed in such a mountainous place like Sweden and in such a dark environment!"

Kleist was also anxious about this matter, his troops were fully mobilized, hundreds of German troops were looking for anything suspicious in the dark mountain forest, and in order to be sure, he even sent out helicopters and a small number of special forces assigned to him.

The only way to target a target for high-altitude bombardment is to light a fire or provide lighting. As long as the other side is prevented from doing this, the effect of the bombing will be greatly reduced, and even the target will be completely lost.

......

Just as General Kleist was calling again to urge his ground forces to search the suspicious area as intensively as possible, a German helicopter was speeding through a dense forest on the edge of the mountain. This is the second time it has passed through the woodland, and the last time it had found no searchlights.

This time, however, it apparently found something, and after skimming through the woodland, it turned around again and flew back quickly. A huge searchlight swept back and forth across the ground, hoping to be hit by the suspicious spot that had just been reflected.

"There's a suspicious object down there!Lower altitude!Lower altitude!" The soldier controlling the searchlight on the helicopter shouted to his fellow machine gun operator to aim at the delicately camouflaged cabin, and the pilot began to slowly descend the plane after hearing the radio alert.

Not far away, the sound of wolf dogs barking wildly came, and a group of nearby German patrols quickly arrived, and the signal corpsmen with radios on their backs informed the friendly forces nearby, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense, after all, this was the first suspicious building they found.

"Phew!" suddenly a gunshot rang out from the hut that looked like a cover on the trench, and the bullets hit the helicopter and sparked. The huge searchlight was shattered, and the machine gunner on the side pulled the trigger under his finger without thinking.

"Suddenly, suddenly!" The machine gun violently spewed tongues of fire, and the dense bullets hit the roof of the hidden house, and the dead branches and leaves scattered on the roof of the house were scattered in all directions with great force, and for a time the sound of broken wooden planks drowned out the screams of the people inside.

A German patrol in the distance had also arrived at the position, and they approached the room with rifles and under the cover of machine guns, and then the machine guns suddenly ceased firing, and they hurried to enter the house through the camouflaged potholes around it. Inside, three or five corpses in civilian clothes lay with scattered British Lee Enfield rifles.

Thankfully, the Germans also found several barrels of gasoline in the storage grooves dug into the pit walls, which were not ignited by machine guns fired from helicopters. Apparently these people intended to use these barrels of gasoline to indicate ground targets to the American bomber forces.

"Report immediately! Say that we have found some armed saboteurs hiding around the mining area!" One of the officers at the head shouted loudly to the signal corps: "Quick! Notify the headquarters! Let them focus on searching the mountainous woodlands that are convenient for concealment!"

"Uh......h Woo ......" The iron ore rough processing plant in the distance sounded a sharp air raid siren, and the radio loudspeaker in the factory repeatedly broadcast the order to all personnel to turn off the lights. Martial law has begun, and all areas, including cities, are to be powered off and lights out to prevent detection by American aircraft.

"Hurry! Time is running out! Let all troops be on higher alert!" The officer heard the air defense sirens sounding in the distance, and knew that the American planes were approaching the airspace near Norway. So as he gave the order, he raised his head and looked at the starry sky with deep eyes.

At this moment, when everything was about to fall silent with the extinguishing of the air defense siren, suddenly gunshots rang out from all directions. The saboteurs, who were hiding in the shadows, finally launched their deadly attack.

The Wehrmacht officer looked into the distance in astonishment, and now he knew how massive the destruction had been tonight. Listening to the dense gunfire, he pulled out his pistol from his waist, and then glanced at his subordinates with his eyes: "Immediately move closer to the martial law area! If you encounter any suspicious elements, fire directly!"

After giving the order, he quickly walked towards the place where the gunfire was most dense, brushed aside the branches of the trees around him, and walked into the dense forest. Behind him, Wehrmacht soldiers with rifles cautiously followed him not far behind. The helicopter, which had lost its searchlight, rose to a safe altitude and returned to the base for repairs.